UnZixWin

A spyware-free alternative
to WinZix

UPDATE:

The .torrent file previously available for download here has been compromised!

In december of '09, the website was hacked. I detected this fairly quickly and took steps to clean it up, but failed to detect that the .torrent file had been tampered with. I recently discovered that it had been altered to use malware trackers instead of the one I assigned. Damn hackers! Damn them to hell!

Therefore, I strongly recommend that you use the direct download link on this page instead of using the .torrent file.

Furthermore, please stop seeding it if you've downloaded UnZixWin using a BitTorrent Client!

Update:

Many people have reported
problems with the installation utility. Symptoms include having to repeatedly
restart the system to no effect, and stupid prompts about replacing newer
versions of system DLL's with older ones.

I have attempted to rectify
the problem by removing the components which apparently cause confusion to
some system setups. Those components are clearly in place on the target systems
anyway. Try the new installer if you have experienced problems with the previous
one. It's a much smaller download, to boot.

The new version 0.1.0 is
largely untested, but offers multiple-file extraction support, a fresher user
interface, and some other niceties of minor importance. If you have version
0.0.9, this update isn't strictly necessary, but I offer it as a service by
request.

Introduction

UnZixWin is a small Windows-based
utility (I don't have the gall to call it an application) I wrote after dissecting
the format of a few ZIX archives found on popular bittorrent sites. Written
in Visual Basic 6.0, it is crude and simple, but gets the job done.

It opens ZIX archives,
presents a list of the contents, and lets you selectively extract whatever
is inside. As a bonus, it warns you about some commonly known virus-infected
things occasionally found inside. That's really all it does. That's all it
needs to do.

I would include a snazzy
screenshot here, but it's so crude and ugly that it's frankly embarrassing.

Features:

Decodes and extracts contents of ZIX archives (versions
1.0 and 2.0)

Decodes 3wPlayer / DomPlayer-encoded AVI
files

Provides helpful warnings about a few virus-infected
files commonly included in ZIX archives

Source code available

Free of charge

Rationale and History

There used to be a long, rambling and slightly
self-congratulatory section right here on how I discovered the format of ZIX
archives, and the development of the utility. It isn't particularly interesting.
If you're interested in this type of minutia, go here
.

Release History

Release
Date

Version

Details

July 2009

0.1.0

Added multiple-file extraction, and fixed a bug which caused
UnZixWin to minimize itself when the progress dialog closed. Major UI
overhaul.